Community or “group” services are becoming increasingly popular on the Internet. Group communications generally refers to communications between an arranged or otherwise affiliated group of users. Blogs, content sharing sites, and message posting sites represent different types of group communications. Group communications allow users to form loosely-connected communities around a subject area, hobby club, social group, etc.
Network users, whether they use a mobile device or a PC to communicate, do not have an easy way to exchange information inside a group of people. Group communication is usually limited to sending group e-mail or initiating a group chat if everyone is online. It can be quite difficult to share files with a defined group of people, or to send application information such as calendar entries for the users to see. Web-based community services may offer features for the group members to use, but the service provider controls the services and the users cannot add new, custom features. They also have their own username and password schemes that each member has to apply for.
Some forms of electronic communication are inefficient or cumbersome when used for group communication. For example, e-mail is the most popular way of communicating within a group today. People can send pictures or other content to their group of friends via e-mail, as well as calendar entries, and other files. However, e-mail is lacking in several areas for purposes of group communication. For example, it is not suitable for sending large amounts of data, and each message has to be handled manually. E-mail can be forged and is therefore insecure by nature. There is also a risk associated with opening e-mail attachments.
Further, in current systems, group services rely on server-based implementations where the service provider has all group members' information in its possession. Users can join such groups as long as they agree with the service terms of the service provider or third party who administers the group services. In any case, the users have to agree with the terms. Thus, in such prior art systems, these administered services are restricted in some way, and users must agree with the service providers' terms and conditions. Further, the service provider may in fact own rights to the members' data, and may choose to stop the service at any time whereby the group information is lost. The group has little or no means of controlling the lifetime of the service, and has to rely on and trust the service provider with their information. Additionally, hosting group services via a particular device of the group, such as a mobile phone, would lead to various problems. For example, due to the nature of mobile phones, they may not be available from time to time—the phone may be out of a coverage area, may have expended its battery life, etc. In such situations, the service would be unavailable to the entire group.
Accordingly, there is a need in the communications industry for a better manner of managing of group communications. The present invention fulfills these and other needs, and offers other advantages over the prior art approaches.